Consumption And Capitalism Are Necessary For Economic Growth

In order to preserve our resources, environmentalists use the concept of sustainable development-sustainable development is a development that satisfies our current needs without compromising the future availability of natural resources, or our future quality of life. Our consumption rates have risen significantly higher; according to the World Watch Institute, and their article The State of Consumption Today, the rate has gone up thirty-five percent, and we are now ecologically at risk. Nevertheless, who can we blame but

The issue is that the U.S. uses a ton of resources and if people tried to not be as wasteful, the statistics of resources used in America would decrease dramatically. Bryson says in his essay, “With just 5 percent of the world’s population, we consume 20 percent of its resources.” For example, in the article by Scientific American, Dave Tilford

“Many current discussions about sustainability focus on the ways in which human activity...can be maintained in the future without exhausting all of our current resources… there has been a close correlation between the growth of human society and environmental degradation - as communities grow, the environment often declines” (603).

As a nation, we have to look at what the future would be for our children, their children and the generations ahead. We can start with participating in recycle programs, investing in clean energy and ways to reduce destruction of our forests." Without Americans constant need to consume, the environment would have plenty of time to replenish the resources it provide us." "NIEHS Environmental Coloring Book." National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, an official government website for Kids. 02 Apr. 2009 .

The average U.S. citizen consumes eighteen tons of natural resources per year and generates an even higher volume of wastes. These wastes get dumped and unloaded into rivers, lakes, and oceans and other landfills; only a small portion are recycled. The spread of mass consumption over the U.S. and its effects are staggering. The production and processing of our wants and needs is done by the extraction of natural resources such as fossil fuels, wood, ore, and water. This requires the creation of factories which gives off poisonous byproducts, while the commodities create more pollutants and waste themselves. This process keeps cycling over and over to create a bigger and more detrimental problem on our environment. Who is paying for this? The Earth; our environment.

What does the earth mean to the human race, what do we owe to the world? The food crisis in America is an even balance of 1 billion hungry and 1 billion obese. This means somewhere along the lines we something is going very wrong. We are being mislead and told that we are going green. Is America really going green? Or is it being fed propaganda to hide the true damage of the process of making are organic so-called natural products?

Sustainability is the foundation upon which resilient and adaptive design was built. It “is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment” (Sustainability and the US EPA). Concern for the environment grew in the 1960’s, and after the creation of the EPA in 1970 the term sustainability came into use. “Sustainable development emerged as a result of significant concerns about the unintended social, environmental, and economic consequences of rapid population growth, economic growth, and consumption of natural resources.” (Sustainability and the US EPA). In the U.S., the history of sustainability is rooted in American

The word sustainability has been defined ‘as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their needs’ (Mansdorf, 2010).

And, as a whole, I feel that society is not doing very well with this. Our country especially still relies heavily on nonrenewable energy sources like coal and oil, and we live very consumer-oriented lifestyles with products that seem to be built more for disposability than longevity. And on top of that, nearly everything we buy comes in excessive packaging, often made of plastics, that aren’t always recyclable. We waste energy, materials, water, and more on a regular basis. I know that I’m not that great at maintaining a sustainable lifestyle either. I waste too much energy on electronics or by forgetting to turn lights off or unplugging things when they aren’t in use. I don’t take the shortest showers and I don’t recycle nearly as much as I should. I also enjoy buying new things that I probably don’t need, and definitely don’t research whether or not the things I buy are coming from sustainable sources. So, as a whole, not very good. However, I do believe that in my lifetime, we can start making changes and major leaps to become more sustainable. One goal that certainly seems obtainable is making the switch to renewable energy sources. In my International Sustainability class, we’ve looked at a few of these. Solar panels, for example, are becoming smaller and less expensive as technology continues to grow and improve, making them much more affordable and accessible as an energy source than they used to be, while also more efficient. If this trend continues, they would be perfectly feasible for everyday people to use with their homes or small businesses, they won’t only be for the affluent or corporations to use, and that’s only one example of

The human population has continued to exceed seven billion people as of 2012. This large increase in population has created substantial alterations to earth’s environment and created heavy reliance on nonrenewable resources it provides us. Currently the human population consumes nonrenewable resources at an unsustainable rate. If this consumption continues to be unsustainable it will lead to the depletion or loss of the resources that we currently rely largely on. The use of natural resources generates waste products (Faure, 1998), and as nonrenewable resources continue to be of high demand they will create increased amounts of

In the age of commodities and consumerism, the U.S has emerged as one of the leading over-consumers in the world. Overconsumption is a catastrophe, as humans exploit more than the environment can sustainably provide. People consume water, energy and minerals on a daily basis at a rate that is depleting the earth’s life-sustaining systems. Americans make up to 4.5% of the world’s population and consume more than 20% of its energy (WPB). The lifestyle and culture exhibited by Americans are unsustainable resulting in significant problems that add to the issue of global warming, species extinction, and accumulation of toxic wastes. Part of the consumption is linked to the high population. Whereas the U.S accounts for 4.5% of the 7.1 billion population of the planet, the relative consumption of every individual account for the largest consumption rate in the world thus leading to environmental problems such as air and water pollution. An analysis of the relative consumption rate in the U.S indicates that the U.S population is associated with heavy levels of consumption that accelerate the rapid depletion of resources.

The average human being, multiplied by the Earth’s population, would need to have about four Earths just to supply enough resources (Footprint Calculator). Thinking of people around the world, the people of the United States seem to take a lot of their life for granted. Many people when they hear of the polar ice caps melting wave it off and either don’t believe in it or believe it is not their problem. Well it is their problem and if we don’t jump on the issue soon we will not be giving our future generations much of a life. This brings me to the idea of sustainability. A simple description of the word means that what we have today we will also have tomorrow, next week, next year, or even the next lifetime. Although that is the modest version sustainability is much, much more than just that. Sustainability is derived from three main parts of the human life: environmental, social, and economic. Each being just as important as the other. Environmental is the most well-known aspect of sustainability in human life, but both social and economic take their place in keeping this Earth sustainable.

Sustainability is a topic that has become very important in recent years. Sustainability is defined as, “the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.” ("Finding and Resolving the Root Causes of the Sustainability Problem", 2014)

As I mentioned before, the world has been using more than it created especially in the US. The only reason why we Americans can live like we do is because we use resources of other countries. If everyone in the world were to live like the average American, then we would need around 5 Earths to provide for everyone. One way to reduce our footprint would be to use less. Of course, everyone hears that we should reduce, recycle, and reuse, but how many people actually do that. One great example of a place where everything used is completely renewable and eco-friendly is the Govardhan Eco-Village in India. This village, while not possible everywhere, sets the tone for sustainable living. For sustainability they utilize various techniques like organic farming, water conservation, soil biotechnology, and waste management. This village has attracted much attention and has won many awards including the International Green World Award and International Zero Waste Award. Using this as a model, I believe that with serious reform, we can improve our cities and homes to leave a smaller footprint and to become more

Every living being are directly or indirectly depend on natural environment. Sustainability helps to balance financial, social, and environmental factors to facilitate responsible business decision making over the immediate and long term. . Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Oxford University press 1987, p.43). Sustainability is also being protective and aware of use of natural resources and development that meets the need of present and everything that is need for our survival and well being depends, directly or indirectly on our natural environment. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sustainability is